This disclosure relates to a method and system for portable personal computer manufacturers to program, configure, and customize battery units powering portable personal computers.
Information systems in general have attained widespread use in business as well as personal computing environments. An information handling system, as referred to herein, may be defined as an instrumentality or aggregate of instrumentalities primarily designed to compute, classify, process, transmit, receive, retrieve, originate, switch, store, display, manifest, detect, record, reproduce, handle or utilize any form of information, intelligence or data for business, scientific, control or other purposes. The information handling system may be configured for a specific user application or requirement such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage and/or global communications. In general, an information handling system may include a variety of hardware and/or software components that may be configured to provide information and/or consume information. An information handling system may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and/or networking systems.
Included as information handling systems are portable personal computers (PCs) known commonly as laptops and notebooks; personal digital assistants (PDAs); and other mobile computing systems. These types of information handling systems rely on rechargeable battery units to provide power. Battery units can make use of various material components such as lithium ion (LION) and nickel metal hydride (NiMH). Regardless of whether a system is a PC, PDA, or other device, and regardless of the use of LION or NiMH or other material component(s), battery units must be flexible, programmable, and provide safety features. Safety features include avoiding certain over temperature and over voltage conditions. Currently, a great number of information handling systems make use of smart-batteries. Smart-batteries are battery units having separate and programmable processors.
Battery units, including smart-batteries, are volatile components that can over-charge, over-heat, and potentially explode. To prevent such catastrophic events from occurring, strict preventative measures are put in place. Such measures include limiting access to program battery units. To prevent unintentional or intentional (hacking) software changes that can lead to inappropriate or unsafe conditions, smart-batteries are exclusively programmed and modified by respective battery unit vendors.
PC manufacturers typically rely on a number of vendors to provide battery units, in particular smart-batteries. Common practice is for several vendors to supply battery units that support the same model of PC. With multiple vendors PC manufacturers are not tied to a particular supply source. Different models of PCs typically use the same generic type model battery unit; the generic type model battery unit is modified for a particular model of PC. Each model of PC has certain unique voltage, current, power, temperature sensing, and various other requirements of the battery unit. Therefore generic type battery units that are used in various models of PCs are programmed and configured to meet the specific requirements of the particular model of PC.
Battery unit vendors prior to sending battery units to the PC manufacturer program and configure battery units. Programming and configuration of battery units are conducted with specific requirements, including system interfacing required by specific models of PCs. In addition to specific PC manufacturer requirements, battery unit vendors can be required to comply with industry standard specifications that can include the system management bus (SMB) Specification that defines communication to a PC by way of an SMB. In certain cases the Smart-Battery System (SBS) Specification is applicable. The SMB was developed by the Intel® Corporation. Both the SMB Specification and the SBS Specification are maintained and controlled by the SBS Implementers Forum.
When vendors customize battery units for PC manufacturers, vendors make use of circuit mask programming, electronic erasable program read only memory (EEPROM) flash programming, and firmware programming. PC manufacturers rely on customized, properly configured battery units from vendors. In certain cases firmware in a battery requires changes or revisions. Since only battery manufacturers are able to reconfigure the battery firmware, PC manufacturers are unable to ship out PCs until properly configured batteries are made available.
PC manufacturers may at times find the need to reconfigure battery firmware in batteries that are in PCs that have been shipped and/or in use by consumers. When certain software changes are required of PC systems, a PC user (consumer) may be provided software changes on a disk or similar medium, or a PC user can download the software changes from a PC manufacturer web-site. Because of the safety restrictions that require only the battery manufacturer to perform battery firmware changes, PC users must send their batteries back to either to the PC manufacturer or battery manufacturer. If the battery is sent to the PC manufacturer, the PC manufacturer must either send a properly configured replacement battery or send the existing battery to the battery vendor for firmware changes. If a battery vendor does not have adequate stocks of the required battery units, the PC user either must delay the PC system modification or wait indefinitely until a replacement battery unit is shipped by the battery unit vendor.
Stocks of generic battery units or battery units specific to particular models of PCs must be programmed or reprogrammed, and configured by the battery unit vendor. In certain cases, cost constraints prevent vendors from performing required changes to battery units. Programming or reprogramming, and configuration a certain lot size of battery units can also be cost prohibitive to a battery unit vendor. Costs include tooling, setup, creating code, and physically receiving battery units and configuring them. When a PC system is modified, affecting the battery unit, the PC manufacturer is in the best position to modify the battery unit; however, because of safety measures the PC manufacturer is unable to make or provide the required changes to the PC user, nor can the PC manufacturer perform the required modifications.